Finally, a women’s jacket that doesn’t feel the need to use flowers or glitter or swirls or pink. Admittedly, Macna’s Impala does come in a lovely (if you’re in to that sort of thing) shade of deep pink and white, but I opted for the refreshing navy-and-grey number.

I took a big risk with this jacket, because the first time I wore it on a motorcycle was the day I rolled out of my driveway for what turned out to be a five-day, 2000km traipse through northeastern Victoria and NSW’s Alpine region in the middle of June. The reason it felt risky is because this is by far the lightest all-seasons jacket I’ve picked-up. Once on, it was unseasonably soft and comfortable – surely not long-term waterproof, and seemingly too light to keep me warm after extended periods in some of Australia’s coldest climes.

It boasts a removable thermal liner, but which zips up separately and with dual layers, ultimately meaning there’s three layers of jacket between the external zipper and your chest – clever. Another neat innovation is the liner is held secure at the neck by magnets stitched into the soft fabric – this means it’s neither glove-shod fiddly or zip-edge scratchy.

And as well as the large and glove-easy zipper pulls, there’s the usual high-quality armour, five internal pockets – the opening of the most-used breast pocket is 15cm long with the cavity itself extending to a generous 20cm deep – and two external pockets.   

But there’s one thing I’m yet to work out. If I’m honest, I was on the last 100km before home on that 2000km adventure ride before I even realised what it was that was causing the small of my back to feel cold. Perhaps stupidly, I’d put it down to the large windscreen on the Benelli TRK502 causing cold air to circle over the top of my body and for whatever reason mean that a 20cm-diameter patch on my lower back was left cold (silly in hindsight, I know!).

But the rear flap – who’s hip-covering length is again just-right classy without being a daggy smidgen-too-long –  was flapping.

But because it took me so long to realise, I haven’t had a lot of time to fiddle with the adjusters to work out how to fix it. I did pull over and tighten both the waist buckles and the velcro hip tabs, which worked for 50-odd kays, but the rear of the jacket was flapping again by the time I arrived home.

I’m sure it’s a matter of finding the sweet spot depending on the style of machine I’m riding and I hope I do, cos it kept me warm, it kept me dry and its light weight meant it reduced my fatigue levels considerably, too. It’s a beauty.

Pros

  • Light weight
  • Good looking

Cons

  • Rear flap

Macna Impala

Colours

Blue/Grey, White/Pink

Sizes

XS-2XL

$429.95

www.linkint.com.au

(07) 3382 5000

By Kellie Buckley